Frequently Unexpected

In the visitor experience portion of the Office of Admission, which the interns work closely there is a lot of room for the unexpected to happen. The set up of the visits is such that we try to predict the unexpected as much as possible, but things will still slip through. The majority of these are small, easily fixed issues, but sometimes we run into some bigger problems that can more effect the visit experience of our guests. There might be some ways to address these types of issues.

Some small common issues that occur are technological problems, such as with our Prezi information session, as well as sometimes with the program that we use to check visitors in for their tours. These are pretty easy to fix and do not usually cause too many issues day-to-day. Some of the bigger issues we encounter are when scheduled group tours are not on time, as well as when tour guides are not able to do their tours for a variety of reasons. These issues are the ones that do have an impact on how the visit experience could be.

Therefore, these two issues should be addressed. Unfortunately, the first—scheduled tour groups being late—is pretty out of our control, as traffic patterns and other incidents typically cause such delays. However, we should create a protocol for what happens on those days where the groups are late. Throughout the summer the interns have worked together to create some form of this: we have an intern give an abbreviated information session and get them out on tour as soon as possible. Perhaps, though, there could be something that is done every time, so that we are ready for it when it does occur. A version of this so that the group tours do not rely on the regular information session and tour and they can do their own thing so that their arrival time is not as important.

The issue with the tour guides not being able to do their tours at the last minute is one that the office has had to deal with for some time. A lot of the reasoning for the tour guides is out of their control, such as being sick, car troubles, or other things of that nature. However, we sometimes have tour guides that simply do not show up or do not have good reasons for missing their tours. There is a strike policy for this type of behavior, but maybe there is a backup plan that we can have to make sure the tours are covered. For the summer we have had some of the interns make sure that they have a change of clothes in case they need to give a tour. This may not be plausible for the year, however, as the schedule will be a bit different. Another strategy could be to try to schedule more tour guides than we actually need, so that if one cannot make it at the last minute, there is no issue.